How to connect Panasonic AJ Series camcorders to Wowza Streaming Engine

Originally Published on 06/23/2016 | Updated on 03/06/2017 11:08 am PST

Panasonic AJ series P2 HD camcorders have built-in network connectivity for capturing and publishing live video over the Internet to Wowza Streaming Engine™ media server software. Wowza Streaming Engine creates Panasonic source settings in a stream file, which provides a method to re-stream the output from the Panasonic camcorder to players. This article describes how to create connection settings to automatically configure your Panasonic camcorder.

Notes:

Integrated publishing is included in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.5.0 and later for the following Panasonic AJ series P2 HD camcorder and recorder models:

Contents

Connecting Panasonic P2 camcorders

Use the procedures in this section to set up the Panasonic source for a live application in Wowza Streaming Engine, and to set up your Panasonic camcorder to distribute video to the live application.

Note: You can set up a Panasonic source for the live application in Streaming Engine Manager first or you can set up the Panasonic P2 camcorder to distribute video to the live application first. If you want the live stream to be available to users from the beginning, or if you want to record the live stream from the beginning using the Incoming Streams feature in Streaming Engine Manager, set up the Panasonic P2 camcorder in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager first. The live application in the Streaming Engine will periodically try to connect to the camcorder until it comes online.

Set up the Panasonic P2 live source

In the Wowza Streaming Engine Manager Welcome page, click Applications at the top of the page.

In the contents panel, under the live application, click Sources (Live).

The stream name is used to create a stream file that replaces (aliases) the Panasonic camcorder's complex stream URI so that players can use the stream file name in playback URLs in place of the camcorder's complex stream name. Stream files are stored in an application's streaming file directory and have a .stream file name extension. You must enter a stream name value that creates a unique stream file name.

The camcorder's IP address is the network address or properly mapped domain that you established using the Panasonic Easy IP Setup Software. If you are missing this software, you can download it from the Panasonic website.

Adding an optional [custom-rtsp-port] to the camcorder's IP address redirects traffic through that port for the camcorder to receive. Leave this value off of the camcorder IP address to use the default (port 554). For more information about changing the camcorder's RTSP port, see Set up the Panasonic P2 camcorder.

Click Create Connection to connect to the stream. If the camcorder is offline, the stream file will try to connect to it every 3 seconds until it can establish a connection. For more information about how to change the connection retry interval, see Changing the reconnect wait time.

Set up the Panasonic P2 camcorder

If you have multiple camcorder instances on your network or you are streaming video via public internet, you may want to change the host RTSP port number (554 by default). For information on how to change ports, see your Panasonic camcorder's Operating Instructions and protocol documents. You can also refer to your camcorder Operating Instructions for details about how configure your camcorder and adjust settings such as Resolution, Bit rate, and Frame rate.

Verifying the connection

To verify that the stream is published, click Incoming Streams for the live application in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, and then click the stream name.

The information page for the stream displays the uptime, network throughput, and other information about the published stream.

Playing the stream

To play the stream over various streaming formats, do the following:

Click Stream Files for the live application in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, and then click the name of the stream file in the list that's re-streaming your Panasonic camcorder output.

Click Test Players in the upper-right corner of the stream file page. The Test Players window that opens includes test players that are preconfigured to stream a live stream named myStream.stream over various streaming formats. Each tab in the Test Players window either hosts a test player that you can use to play the live stream or provides instructions for playing the live stream. For example, to use the Adobe HDS protocol to play myStream.stream, click the Adobe HDS tab, and then click Start.

Note: The example players are preconfigured to play a stream named myStream. To use the example players to play the broadcast from your Panasonic camcorder, be sure to substitute the name of the stream file that's re-streaming your Panasonic camcorder output in place of myStream in the playback URLs.

Changing the reconnect wait time

If the Panasonic camcorder is offline, the live application will try to connect to it every 3 seconds by default until it establishes a connection. To change how often the live application will try to connect to the camcorder, do the following:

Click Stream Files for the live application in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager, and then click the name of the stream file in the list that will re-stream your Panasonic camcorder output.

Click the Properties tab.

Note: Access to the Properties tab is limited to administrators with advanced permissions. For more information about how to configure access, see Manage credentials.

In the Common section of the properties page, click Edit.

To change the default reconnectWaitTime property value, select the Enabled check box for the property, type an alternate value (in milliseconds) in the property box, and then click Save. The following example shows that the property value has been changed to 10000 milliseconds (10 seconds).

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